LIBYA: Military council head confirms that Sirte has been liberated, completing the liberation of the entire country.

Record ID: 574695

  • Title: LIBYA: Military council head confirms that Sirte has been liberated, completing the liberation of the entire country.
  • Date: 21st October 2011
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF BELHADJ AND MEMBERS OF NTC SECURITY COMMITTEE OBSERVING THE LIBYAN NATIONAL ANTHEM
  • Embargoed: 5th November 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Libya, Libya
  • Country: Libya
  • Topics: Conflict
  • Reuters ID: LVA76AL0NSG00GF6LSPZ4HE6LF9B
  • Story Text: Libyan interim government fighters captured Muammar Gaddafi's home town on Thursday (October 20), extinguishing the last significant holdout of resistance by troops loyal to the deposed leader and ending a two-month siege.
    The head of Tripoli's Military Council, Abdul Hakim Belhadj, confirmed the city had been captured.
    "As for the liberation of Sirte. We, thank God, that it has been liberated. The rebels have moved towards their goal which was the liberation of Sirte and today they have announced just a little while ago that it has been liberated. This liberation will be the completion of the liberation of all of Libya and we call on the rebels to continue to act responsibly and safeguard those towns, in order to make sure they bring security and stability which we called for in the revolution of February 17th," he said.
    The capture of Sirte means Libya's interim ruling council, the National Transitional Council (NTC), should now begin the task forging a new democratic system which it had said it would start after the city, built as a showpiece for Gaddafi's rule, had fallen.
    Gaddafi, wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of ordering the killing of civilians, is in hiding, possibly deep in Libya's Sahara desert, as Belhadj confirmed.
    "Gaddafi does not seem to be in Sirte our information says he is somewhere else and we are following up and hopeful that we will be crowned with the delivering of the desires of the Libyan people," he said.
    The former Libyan leader was toppled by rebel forces on Aug. 23, after 42 years of rule over the oil-producing North African state.
    The capture of Sirte was also confirmed by Colonel Yunus Al Abdali, head of operations in the eastern half of the city.
    Reuters saw NTC vehicles enter Neighbourhood Two, the last part of Sirte held by Gaddafi's men and also other vehicles racing towards the west.
    Hundreds of NTC troops have surrounded the Mediterranean coastal town for weeks in a chaotic struggle that has killed and wounded scores of the besieging forces and an unknown number of defenders.
    NTC fighters said there were a large number of corpses inside the last redoubts of the Gaddafi troops, but it was not immediately possible to verify the claim.
    Thousands of civilians have fled Sirte which had a peacetime population of 75,000 and now lies largely in ruins from the rocket, artillery and tank fire which rained down on the town for weeks.
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